Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux
How to read this
Capitals mark the stressed syllable. “an” is a nasal vowel: say it through the nose, with no n. The French r comes from the back of the throat. The recording is the reference.
Red and white from dry to fully sweet, from 19 communes around the bastide of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande: the last place name to join the
The place
Sainte-Foy is the far east of the Gironde, where the department meets the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne: 19 communes around Sainte-Foy-la-Grande: Caplong, Eynesse, Gensac, Landerrouat, Les Lèves-et-Thoumeyragues, Ligueux, Margueron, Massugas, Pellegrue, Pessac-sur-Dordogne, Pineuilh, Riocaud, La Roquille, Saint-André-et-Appelles, Saint-Avit-de-Soulège, Saint-Avit-Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Philippe-du-Seignal, Saint-Quentin-de-Caplong and Sainte-Foy-la-Grande itself. Clay and limestone soils cover the plateau, with deposits of sand and silt, and lake limestones lie on the left bank of the Dordogne. The vineyard covers 280 hectares, worked by about 30 growers.
The rules
The red, from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec (Cot in the rules) and Merlot, asks for 198 g/l of sugar for Merlot and 189 for the others, 11.5% of natural alcohol and 52 hectoliters a hectare with a ceiling of 65, and is sold from March 31 of the year after the harvest. The whites are Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon and Muscadelle, in 3 styles. The dry white asks for 10.5% and 62 hectoliters with a ceiling of 72. The moelleux, medium sweet, keeps between 17 and 45 g/l of sugar and says so on the label; it asks for 221 g/l in the grape, 13.5% of natural alcohol and 45 hectoliters with a ceiling of 55, and is raised until December 15 and sold from January 1 of the year after the harvest. The liquoreux, fully sweet, is picked by hand in successive passes, at 255 g/l of sugar and 15% of natural alcohol, with no enrichment, keeps at least 51 g/l and yields 37 hectoliters with a ceiling of 40; it is sold from March 31 of the year after the harvest. At least 4,500 vines a hectare for all of them.
The names
No classification. A civil court of the Gironde set the place apart from the
- Colors
- Red; white dry, moelleux or liquoreux
- Communes
- 19, around Sainte-Foy-la-Grande
- Vineyard
- 280 hectares, about 30 growers
- Soil
- Clay and limestone on the plateau with sand and silt; lake limestones by the Dordogne
- Grapes
- Red: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot. White: Sauvignon, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon, Muscadelle
- Density
- 4,500 vines a hectare at least
- Yield
- Red 52 hectoliters, ceiling 65; dry white 62, ceiling 72; moelleux 45, ceiling 55; liquoreux 37, ceiling 40
- Alcohol
- Red 11.5%, dry white 10.5%, moelleux 13.5%, liquoreux 15% natural at least
- Release
- Red and liquoreux from March 31 of the year after the harvest; moelleux from January 1 of the year after the harvest
- Classified
- No classification
- AOC since
- July 31, 1937 as Sainte-Foy-Bordeaux;
Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux since 2016; cahier (the cahier des charges, the appellation’s official rulebook) of June 4, 2026
Sources: FGVB, cahier des charges
The stack
The same land in
The appellations of Bordeaux are stacked, not laid side by side. The map draws the whole stack. Open the map
The pyramid of names shows what each step promises: vines a hectare, bottles, ripeness, day of sale, grapes. Climb from here
Terroir
South of Gensac, ball-shaped corals and red algae once built reef mounds in the Oligocene sea of the starfish limestone (calcaire à astéries). Its old coastline winds through the communes from Saint-André-et-Appelles in the north to Auriac-sur-Dropt in the south, and at Landerrouat it made a peninsula.
Lake limestone breaks the slopes in small cliffs, sometimes about 10 m high: "the dominant landform of the region," in the words of the 1996 map. Vines hold the sound slopes of old river sands and clays (molasse), the limestone ledges and tables, and the better-drained soils of the old river terraces. Among these vines runs a shore without a sea.
The cahier des charges of
Sources: BRGM, Notice explicative de la feuille Duras à 1/50 000, 1996.
Châteaux on this site
News from Sainte-Foy Côtes de Bordeaux
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Business France puts Bordeaux producers into trade matchmaking
Business France brought 6 producers and winemakers from Premier
Côtes de Bordeaux , Entre deux Mers and Sainte Foy together with UK wine buyers and importers in central London.The format puts direct commercial introductions at the center of Bordeaux’s international trade efforts. The next question is whether these meetings develop into lasting partnerships.
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“Vino Veritas”: when unity (really) makes strength
A replay of the February “Vino Veritas” episode spotlighting positive, collaborative innovation in the Bordeaux vineyard. It features the Vignerons AVenir initiative and the momentum in Sainte-Foy-Côtes-de-Bordeaux.